10 Pieces of Writing Advice From Neil Gaiman #FridayReflections

Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman(/ˈɡeɪmən/); is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book. He has won numerous awards, including the Hugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker awards, as well as the Newbery and Carnegie medals. He is the first author to win both the Newbery and the Carnegie medals for the same work, The Graveyard Book. In 2013, The Ocean at the End of the Lane was voted Book of the Year in the British National Book Awards.

10 Pieces of Writing Advice From Neil Gaiman

3. Finish what you’re writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.

4. Put it aside. Read it pretending you’ve never read it before. Show it to friends whose opinion you respect and who like the kind of thing that this is.

5. Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.

6. Fix it. Remember that, sooner or later, before it ever reaches perfection, you will have to let it go and move on and start to write the next thing. Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.

7 Laugh at your own jokes.

8. The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it’s definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it ­honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.

9. Tell your story. Don’t try and tell the stories that other people can tell. Because [as a] starting writer, you always start out with other people’s voices — you’ve been reading other people for years… But, as quickly as you can, start telling the stories that only you can tell — because there will always be better writers than you, there will always be smarter writers than you … but you are the only you.

10. You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we’re doing it.

Credits: Wikipedia and The Guardian

If you are new to Friday Reflections, here’s what it’s about. It’s the end of the week, you’re probably exhausted with work, and all you want to do is sit back, put your feet up, sip on some fancy cocktail or wine, and write away. Sanch and Write Tribe give you writing prompts and all you have to do is choose any one of those prompts to blog about and link up between Friday and Monday. After you link up, be sure to spread the love by visiting other bloggers who have linked up too.

Feel free to add our Friday Reflections badge to your post or sidebar! Follow us on Twitter @FridayReflect and join our Facebook Group. Share your post on social media with the hashtag #FridayReflections.

Since Sanch is located in Australia and a lot of Aussie bloggers join this link up, the post will be up here by Thursday evening.

1. Imagine you have a touch of magic, and can make impossible things happen. What would you do?
2. Write about a teacher that has influenced you.
3. Choose any prompt from the month of June that you haven’t written on before.
4. “One must always be careful of books,” said Tessa, “and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us.” — Cassandra Clare from Clockwork Angel. Use this quote to inspire a post or within your post.
5. Picture Prompt (courtesy Living my Imperfect Life)

About corinnerodrigues

A lover of words. A self-acceptance blogger. A blogging coach. A book reviewer. A woman happily journeying through midlife, moving from self-improvement to self-acceptance and enjoying being herself.
Corinne writes at Everyday Gyaan, reviews fiction at CorinneRodrigues.com and encourages writers and bloggers at Write Tribe and offers offline coaching to writers and bloggers at The Frangipani Creative, located in Secunderabad, India.

I love his stuff and #9 really resonated with me – telling your own story is so important – especially when it comes to blogging because there are so many other people doing it bigger and better, what sets our writing apart is that it’s our story.

Hi Corinne! Good stuff. I so appreciate his perspective because when it comes down to it, the most helpful thing any of us can do is just keep writing. If we were good to begin with we will just get better and if we were bad to begin with we will surely get better. (at least this has worked for me!) Thanks for hosting the linkup and sharing this info! ~Kathy

Great tips, especially no. 6, gives me some solace. Feeling jittery as I have already submitted my final edits. Constantly thinking that I could have done more (this or maybe that…) but, yes perfection is like chasing the horizon, and we need to let it go.